Nyron Nosworthy has warned that both his and Sunderland's success in the Premiership will rest on their ability to put some harsh early lessons into practice.

Nosworthy was brought to the North-East to compete with Stephen Wright at right-back, but has already found himself as the club's first choice for the position because of the knee injury which will keep his rival out for at least three months.

Nosworthy knows he and his new teammates need to come to terms with their elevated surroundings as quickly as possible.

"It's about learning from your mistakes and putting what we talk about on the training ground into practice," said a player whose only previous experience against top flight forwards had been in FA Cup games with former club Gillingham.

"We can't afford to give the ball away because, if you give it away, it's going to come straight back at you. Instead, we've got to have the confidence to pass the ball around well and look to keep possession whenever we've got it.

"If you're patient, you'll get a chance. I thought we did that quite well in spells at Anfield and that's encouraging because there aren't many tougher places to go. Hopefully, we're learning from our mistakes."